Autopsies reveal new details of slayings in California kidnap case

September 24, 2013|Reuters

By Ned Randolph

SAN DIEGO, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The mother of a SanDiego-area teenager who was kidnapped by a family friend lastmonth and rescued days later in Idaho was killed by at least adozen blows to the head and left bound and gagged inside agarage set ablaze after her death, coroners found.

Medical examiners were unable to conclusively determine thecause of death of her 8-year-old son, whose body was foundburned beyond recognition in the charred ruins of an adjacenthouse, but they revealed he most likely died from the fire.

The two autopsy reports, issued late on Monday and postedonline by a local ABC television affiliate, revealed new detailsin the origins of an abduction and double-murder that triggereda multi-state manhunt and drew national media attention.

The case came to public notice in early August whenauthorities issued a statewide child-abduction alert inCalifornia for 16-year-old Hannah Anderson and her 8-year-oldbrother, Ethan, both from the San Diego suburb of Lakeside.

Police launched the search after finding their mother,Christina Anderson, 44, on the night of Aug. 4 slain inside thesmoldering garage owned by the suspected kidnapper, James LeeDiMaggio, with no immediate sign of her children.

The body of a child was discovered in the burned-out ruinsof DiMaggio's two-story cabin next to the garage, but thoseremains were not positively identified as Ethan's for severaldays.

DiMaggio and Hannah ultimately were tracked down about aweek and a half later in the Frank Church River of No ReturnWilderness in Idaho, after a group of horseback riders reportedto authorities that they had encountered the pair days before.

FBI agents shot and killed DiMaggio in a lakesideconfrontation with the suspect and Hannah was freed unharmed.

Hannah said in comments later posted to an online chatservice that she believes DiMaggio, who was a computertechnician, set off the fires at his home with a timer deviceafter taking her captive and heading to Idaho.

BLUNT-FORCE TRAUMA

The high school student also said in the online commentsthat she, her brother and mother had been "tricked" by DiMaggiointo paying a visit to his house at the outset of the ordeal.

But according to the autopsy reports, Christina Anderson hadasked DiMaggio to take her 16-year-old daughter to cheerleadingcamp on Aug. 3 while she was attending her son's footballpractice. That was the last day that the mother and her son wereseen alive, authorities have said.

In both autopsy reports, the San Diego County MedicalExaminer ruled the deaths of Christina and Ethan Anderson ashomicides. The family dog was found dead from a gunshot woundinside the garage with the mother, the coroners said.

Firefighters found the mother's body lying face down beneatha tarp in the detached garage. She had been gagged with ducttape and bound at the ankles with a plastic cable.

The coroner previously disclosed that Christina Anderson haddied from blunt-force trauma to the head. The autopsy detailednumerous abrasions and lacerations to her scalp from a "minimumof 12 impact sites," but it did not identify a murder weapon.

The medical examiner also found blunt-force injuries to herextremities, as well as a gaping slash wound to her neck thatappeared to have been inflicted after she died. Parts of herbody also were burned.

On the boy's badly burned remains, examiners foundfractures of the skull, ribs and other bones they said were mostlikely caused by the fire's heat but added, "traumatic causescannot be completely ruled out."

The autopsy offered no additional clues about possiblemotives for DiMaggio's actions, an aspect of the case thatauthorities have declined to address publicly.

The children's father, Brett, who was living at the timeapart from his family in Tennessee, has said he was bewilderedby the actions of DiMaggio, a longtime close friend who hadserved as the best man at his wedding and was like an uncle tohis children.

But a family friend has said the suspect developed anapparent infatuation with Hannah that made the teenager feeluncomfortable.

In yet another twist to the tragedy, a friend of theDiMaggio family came forward last month to say that the deceasedkidnapper made Brett Anderson's mother, Bernice, the beneficiaryof a $112,000 life insurance policy.